Wow!
Thank you, VILenin, for nominating me for this award - you've been a reader following the tale of my own Komnenids from the very beginning.
Really, the most encouraging thing from the writers end, in my opinion, is knowing that people enjoy your characters and your story, and I'm glad to know I've succeeded!
Nik was/is a hard character to write. I took the possibly-controversial route to explain his in-game lack of children - that he was homosexual. Of course, things being medieval Europe, this isn't common knowledge amongst the general populace of the Byzantine Empire!
(Not to mention its posing a
tiny problem of succession
) I think it added a great deal of depth to what would have otherwise been an overly intellectual, scheming son of an Emperor (those are a dime a dozen, it seems, throughout Byzantine history), and it has resulted in what will soon become a "mother of all battles" in the Byzantine court, as one of his greatest enemies now knows his secret...
He's been tough to write, as I said, but also a great deal of fun, and I hope you all continue to enjoy his adventures (and the adventures of the whole Komnenid clan) as Roman history goes forward!
Thank you once again!